The Resistance
by SamFrancisco
Summary: Everything you've known about Merle Ambrose has been twisted. The truth comes forth in this fanfiction about the leader of the resistance against the headmaster of the thriving magic school... I took some creative liberties in this story, and thought I'd see what it was like if he was evil. In the game, Ambrose is by no means evil, but...what if he was...? Please say your opinions!
1. Chapter 1: A Warm Welcome

"**Honestly, it is a really difficult task, trying to get used to a place when it's another world…"**

**-Lucas Lotusweave, The Ravenwood Address**

Let me begin by saying, everything he's told you is a lie.

Several years ago, Merle Ambrose, a recently graduated and rather talented magic student from a private magic academy in Wysteria, found a tree with immense power named Bartelby floating between worlds. He was a huge tree with unlimited magical power and an eye that could see into the past as well as one that could see into the future. His children in order of age include Torrence, Kelvin, Bernie, Blossom, Ivan, Mortis, and Niles. Their small piece of land was crumbling. Using his power, Ambrose gathered the missing pieces of the world and reconnected them using an extremely complicated spell involving most of the elements.

Bartelby was very thankful that Ambrose did this. He revealed his true identity of being the source of all magic in the spiral. At this, Ambrose humbly bowed, knowing that Bartelby was far more powerful than he could ever be. But even so, Ambrose was formulating a plan in his head. Bartelby invited Ambrose to live in the world of the trees. He graciously accepted but quickly defiled the land by building a school around Bartelby and his children. He deemed this new world Wizard City, and the school, Ravenwood. Bartelby was outraged that Ambrose had turned his sacred place into a city.

As students flooded in and Ambrose hired an elite staff of professors, accommodations were needed. Therefore, he created streets and a district for shopping in Wizard City.

Ambrose quickly stocked the shelves of the library he constructed with books of how he saved Bartelby, a helpless sapling, from floating about in space and filled the students' heads with terrible propaganda. The students cherished their beloved headmaster and were blinded from who he really was.

Now less powerful than before, Bartelby complied to Ambrose's city and he and his children assisted the new students in their study of magic.

Much much later, I, Lucas Lotusweave, leader of the resistance, comes in.

My parents, Alicia and Vincent Lotusweave, sent me to Ravenwood to study the family magic, life. I had other plans. Of course, I studied life magic as well, but I was simply fascinated by the art of ice magic. Ice magicians are wise and crafty, not as good at offense as, say, fire magicians are, but excellent problem solvers and defenders.

After enrollment, I went to Ambrose to see if I could get a tour around the Commons and Ravenwood, and ask why the Death School was missing. He changed the subject instantly, that I should go see the registrar, Merion Lincoln, or as we called him, Mr. Lincoln.

Mr. Lincoln needed to know my name of course, so I told him. Lucas Lotusweave.

"Lotusweave?" Lincoln eyed me anxiously.

"Yes, Lucas Lotusweave, age twelve, ready to learn." I responded, happily.

"Interesting. I have no time to chat with students. Go to the library, it's on the opposite side of The Commons," then, Lincoln rushed off.

So, I made my way to the library, with the hopes of introducing myself to the librarian (I always strived for rank of teacher's pet, you know, the student who is buddy-buddy with all of the teachers and staff).

The library looked very old. Some people told me that it was the oldest building in all of Wizard City. Four gray columns stood, holding up a marble overhang that stood over marble steps with a marble porch. The doors were large thick oak that had big spherical hunk of brass. Later-I was told-the doors no longer functioned by the doorknobs because of how worn they got, that they eventually fell out, and these were just decoration.

I had to lean all of my body weight against the oak door for it to even budge. An older wizard pointed to his wand as he walked by. I stood up straight and pointed my wand-a glorified icicle-toward the door and it slowly opened.

The inside was not as glorious as the outside. A small circulation desk sat in the middle of the room surrounded by decorative pillars that held up nothing. A staircase led upward to the available books on three small bookshelves. The only impressive part was the rest of the library's collection.

Glowing books sat sloppily piled in, what I thought, was a random order on oak bookshelves, the exact material of the door. The dark stone hallways were dimly lit by soft blue torchlight and seemed to go on forever. Small velvet ropes stood in front of all of the entrances to the hallways.

I snuck into one and found myself in front of the circulation desk again.

"No entry into the rest of the collection is permitted to students. If you would like a book that isn't found on the shelves upstairs, I can retrieve it for you here," the black dog behind the circulation desk said.

I stepped away from the desk, nervous that I made a bad first impression. The library was mainly empty, except for an older boy reading a book labeled You and your Banshee, Basic Care and Training by the small fireplace that was sputtering small flames and embers. The boy peered at the fire and pointed at it. A tower of yellow flames erupted in the fireplace and made the fire roar. As I approached, though, it didn't get warmer, it got more room temperature. It was a very comfortable temperature.

"Do you like my myth flames? They're designed to make the temperature comfortable." The boy asked. I hadn't realized it, but I was standing next to the fire, soaking in the temperature that was just right. I withdrew from the fireplace area and apologized.

"It's cool. New students love to see advanced magic, it's not your fault. I'm Boris Tallstaff by the way, nice to meet you." The boy said, sticking out his hand. I shook it.

"Lucas, Lucas Lotusweave. That's me." I said in reply.

"Cool."

I walked away as Boris resumed reading his book and walked up to the circulation desk.

"Hello, sir." I said, attempting to redeem myself after the last incident.

"Hello, young wizard. I am Harold Argleston, librarian of the Wizard City Library, and you are?" the dog inquired.

"Lucas Lotusweave. I'm new, in the schools of ice and life."

Argleston's eyes widened. "Lotusweave?"

"Yes, Lucas Lotusweave."

Argleston shook his head, as if snapping himself back into reality. "Very well," he started in a much more serious tone, "I think you might be interested in this book."

He held out his hand and a glowing book appeared in it. He squeezed the book and it stopped glowing. He opened up the back and scribbled my name under a long list of names, closed it, and slid it across the desktop.

It was a very old book with a green cover that was stained a million times over. The pages were yellowed, and the cover was dotted with holes that revealed the first yellow page. I opened the back cover and saw a list of names tightly squeezed onto the back page, and surely enough, there was my name at the bottom of the list in fresh, black ink. Two other names caught my eye, Moolinda Wu and Cyrus Drake, the life and myth professors.

I looked up at Argleston.

"Read it carefully." He said.

I left the library and put the book into my new leather backpack. For its size, the book was surprisingly light. It was getting late and tomorrow was my first class in ice school, then a class in life, followed by an ice training session, ending with a Spiral Studies class.

So, I went back to Ravenwood and entered my dorm. I didn't have anything in the way of furniture except for the school-supplied desk, bed, chair, and chest of drawers. I sat down at the desk and opened the book.

_The Book of Bartelby_

_By Halston Balestrom, Professor of Storm at Ravenwood School_

_Preface_

_The following book is a book of truth, not the propaganda Merle Ambrose has given to the world. Many years ago, I discovered his secret and learned the truth from Torrence, the storm tree, and checked his story with all of the other trees of Ravenwood. Due to the fact that trees cannot write, I shall write for them. Merle Ambrose has lied to all of us. When I came to Ravenwood to become the storm professor, Merle Ambrose supplied me with a copy of The History of Ravenwood, Merle Ambrose: Savior of the Trees, Rules and Conduct of Wizard City, How to use the Spiral Communicator, and The Story of the Death School._

_The history of Ravenwood and the Merle Ambrose autobiography was the first propaganda to be issued. Ambrose required that all professors complete reading the first three books before teaching at the school._

_Later, when I introduced myself to Harold Argleston, he told me to speak with Torrence as soon as possible. So, I returned to the Storm School and spoke with Torrence. Torrence did nothing but tell me to return at midnight, the hour when Ambrose could not leave his home because of Bartelby's magic. So, I did and I took detailed notes of what Torrence told me, practically giving me this book (of course I had to do editing and such),_

_Chapter One_

_The Truth_

_Merle Ambrose was right about one thing. He stopped Bartelby's Island from crumbling anymore, and then he established Ravenwood and Wizard City. The end of the truth. Then he goes off and stocks the shelves of the library with his autobiography about how if he hadn't been born the Spiral would be doomed. Lies. He has been oppressing Bartelby and his children for years, keeping them back, not allowing them to grow. If he hadn't built that wall around Ravenwood, the trees would be huge, even bigger than Bartelby, but instead they are still small, hardly taller than Ambrose himself. Ambrose had a sinister plan, and if Argleston has given you this book, has proceeded. He is oppressing the trees, slowly taking their energy away from them with a curse that he has planted on the grounds of Ravenwood. Moolinda Wu and Cyrus Drake have been doing all that they can to keep it under control, but if one of them dies or can no longer perform magic, the trees will continue to be dismantled, until eventually there will be no more trees. Ambrose empowered a stone with the curse, and if the stone can be destroyed, so will the curse and the trees will grow. However, the stone was broken into four parts so that it would be extremely difficult to gain back. One was kept by Ambrose, another was shipped to Wysteria, the third was given to someone in Marleybone, unknown at this time, and the fourth stone's location is unknown as well. The only way to end the curse is to destroy all parts of the stone. This is why we must rise up and fight against the oppressor, Merle Ambrose._

_Cyrus Drake_

_Moolinda Wu_

_Baldur Goldpaws_

I read three names, written in Argleston's neat handwriting, down before I realized I was at the back of the book, reading the names of the people who had checked out the book before I had. The book had shrunk down to about three pages including the title page. I was too tired to be confused, and before I knew it, I was crawling into bed.

The dream I had was probably the weirdest dream I had ever had. I saw a pig and a beautiful woman running with a worried look on her face. The pig was golden and flying with quick small wings on its shoulders. Then, Ambrose appeared and struck down the pig with a zap of his wand. The pig's body fell to the ground, dead. The woman kneeled down next to the pig and sobbed.

"Why, Merle? Why?" the woman sobbed.

"You were distracted, Belladonna…"

The woman looked at Ambrose with glassy eyes and paused.

"I suppose so." She said.

Then the dream fizzled into reality and I was awake again. Sunlight streamed through the window on the roof of my dorm room. I stretched and chose to ignore the dream, because it was just nonsense. I swung my legs to the side of my bed and stood up, and started walking to my chest of drawers to put on my robes for the day. I tripped over a moving box on the floor. I picked it up and whatever was in it made a whining sound and rammed into the sides of the box. It was addressed to me from Harold Argleston.

I approached it with caution and reached down to it. As soon as I opened it, a flash of pink shot through the air with a happy "yippee" sound. _Yippee! Yippee!_ I looked up and I saw a pig with wings darting around my room. Just like the one in my dream, except pink.


	2. Chapter 2: My First Classes

"**The bare minimum is for each student to participate in one magic class, one magic training class, one dueling class, an auxiliary class, and a Sprial Studies class…"**

**-Merion Lincoln, Ravenwood Code Presentation Speech**

_Yippee! Yippee! _My tired brain was still trying to grasp the fact that a flying pink pig was soaring around my dorm room. The rest of the package included a book: You and your Piggle: Basic Care and Training, a small box of sand for the piggle's business, a box of food labeled _NaturalGrizzleheim: All Natural Piggle Food, Limitless Edition (Product of Wizard City)_, two dishes, a pass for a pet dorm room complete with pet room and running water and a note from Argleston. I did my best to make out his fancy cursive.

_The Piggle is a myth creature. Take good care of it, Lucas and enjoy that book I gave you!_

_~Harold Argleston, Wizard City Library_

Great. I wasn't sure if I should be excited about the piggle or not. Upon reading the book, I learned that piggles were extremely common myth creatures and that only a handful has unique powers and a handful of that handful had powers that are strong.

I had never been in a magic battle before, so I have no clue if my piggle was strong or not. In fact, I visited Argleston and he told me that he would schedule me in for creature care class with Milo Barker.

Right then, however, I needed to move into my new dorm room, a pet friendly dorm room called P-116. So I went to Simeon Starshine, the boy's dormitory manager.

Simeon was short for his age, seeing as though he was 22 and a masterful wizard, being hardly taller than me. He constantly wore a red hood over his eyes and held a large wooden staff with a ruby inserted at the top. His wardrobe was always red since he _was_ a pyromancer.

Simeon was hired as boy's dormitory manager when he graduated a few months ago, and the maximum age for manager was 25, because you had to be able to relate to the occupants of the dormitory. Of course, there were people who were much older who went to attend classes at Ravenwood who were much older, but they were not permitted to stay at the dormitories.

He never sat behind his desk in his office, he could usually be found outside or in his dormitory. Today, he was in his office, but he was sitting in a big, red, padded chair reading a book, Great Pyromancers.

"Simeon?" I said, in the doorway of his office.

"Just a sec," Simeon didn't take his eyes off of his book, "Dusk Firewielder barely survived the attacks on his castle, later he went stir crazy and killed himself accidentally when jumping into a cold waterfall," Simeon muttered, reading from his book, "Okay, you were saying...uh…?"

"Lucas. Lucas Lotusweave. And, yes, well, I have this pass, and…" I showed him the pass.

"Ah, yes. Mr. Argleston told me that you would need a pet dorm," he said, taking the pass from my hand.

"Yep."

"Okay, seems to be in order, you can move in."

I wanted to ask for directions to my new dorm, but instead he just motioned toward the door and swept me out, eager to get back to his book and read about more famous fire magicians.

I found the Q and P section, a long hallway on the third floor of the dormitory castle. P stood for pet and you usually had to pay for them, except I had special clearance from the school librarian. I wondered if anyone else had gotten special treatment from Argleston.

The Q dormitories were huge. They were pretty much luxury homes packed into a smaller, but still huge, dorm room. I wasn't sure what Q stood for, and I never found out, but there was no special treatment for these rooms. All of the students who lived in the Q dorms were spoiled and always had a million gold coins on them at all times. These students lived here because they couldn't bear being in those dorms that come free! No, never! How dare they not spend money on luxury! Yes sir, I wound up never liking anybody in the Q dorms.

So I opened dormitory P-116 and stepped in. It was only slightly bigger than my old dormitory. It had a bathroom with running water and a toilet, so I still had to use the public shower. That is where I put the piggle's box of sand, who by the way, I named Luke (My cousin's name). I put his food and water bowl in the main living area. There were already all of the things that were in every dorm room (the desk, the bed, etc.), so I didn't have to worry about that.

As soon as I got settled in, my enchanted arm band shook, telling me that I had to get to my first class.

The enchanted arm bands idea was thought up by Ambrose who, after sick of dealing with students late to class, worked with Lincoln to make each student's schedule programmed into a stone band that would buzz when they had to go to class. I would hate to be Lincoln, enchanting all of these arm bands.

I actually thought the whole thing was creepy, but they could be taken off, they just weren't allowed to be misplaced, so most people kept them on their upper arm anyway.

I sprinted down to the first level of the tower and ran out the door. I noticed that a lot of students hadn't even left their dorm yet and some were even coming from the Commons and even farther places, and Bartelby's mouth.

So, I followed the flow of students on the path that went counter clock-wise around Bartelby. On the outside of the circle, I passed Torrence, the storm tree who always had a rain cloud over him and looked glum, then the purple storm school, then Kelvin, the ice tree who was jolly and talkative, then the light blue ice school which I entered.

All of the schools were no larger than a typical one-room schoolhouse. A raised platform in the front held a desk and a few chalkboards with chalk magically writing on its own. An opening behind the desk led into a supply closet filled with all sorts of magical looking items. The walls were cluttered with ice banners, ice shields, pictures of different ice artifacts, and ancient scrolls with old writing tacked to the wall.

A small, but plump, fairy hovered in front of the desk wearing all light blue and with full moon glasses sitting on her miniature nose.

I took the aisle seat in the front right row next to a girl with wild eyes and wild hair. She was very pail with freckles and deep brown hair. When I sat down, she quickly tried smoothed it down and after a few attempts jabbed a blood red wand into the clump that was her hair, and it came to rest, perfectly straight, going just past her shoulders.

"Hi, I'm Alexis Mist," the girl said.

"I'm Lucas Lotusweave," I replied.

"Nice to meet you. Is this your first year?" she asked.

"Yes, yours?" I responded.

"Yep."

I wanted to say more, but it started to get very cold and I felt like I froze, literally. Then I thawed and turned to the front. The teacher had done it to get our attention, a clever way of getting students to stop talking. She sat on a chair her size that rested on the top of her desk.

The chalk began to write on the board that this was the ice school and that the teacher was Miss Lydia Greyrose.

"Hello, students!" Greyrose said in the cheeriest possible voice with a smile as large as the sun, "I am your teacher, Miss Lydia Greyrose… Oh, I see my chalk has already told you! That's enough, chalk, dear!" Greyrose emitted a short, happy laugh before composing herself and focusing on the class.

"Ice. That's what we're all here for, right? Right. You all know that ice is frozen water, but don't be fooled! The truth is that water is thawed ice! Ice is the base, the original, the sturdy, solid element that can do stunning feats!"

Greyrose went on and on about ice and we learned our first spell. Making water freeze. Fun.

When my arm band buzzed I was happy to get out of ice class. Professor Greyrose told us that the rest of the year would be much more fun because it would be all training sessions for dueling with ice. I walked out into the sunlight and got swept away in the stream of students going counter-clockwise around Bartelby again. The fire school went by in a blur, as did the gaping chasm where the death school used to be. The flow slowed as I passed the myth school-a very popular school- and I entered the life school.

The life school was the same as the ice school, except everything had the life symbol on it instead of the ice one, and it was a deep forest green. Also, small end tables lined the perimeter of the room and sitting on them were golden containers with incense burning within.

I took the same seat I did in the ice school, except on the opposite side. Next to me was an older boy who had deep blue eyes and tan skin. His expression was hard, concentrating on something in his mind, perhaps.

Everybody was talking and the room was buzzing with conversation. Nothing happened after five minutes, then ten minutes, then fifteen minutes, until finally the door swung open and everyone looked to the back of the classroom. A rather plump cow standing on two legs came bursting through the door. She was a bit cross-eyed, her hair was up in a bun with two burning incense sticks stuck through it, and she wore a deep green t-shirt and sweatpants that were much too small for her.

She seemed out of breath, and she ran to the front of the classroom and pointed at the chalk which wrote: Ms. Moolinda Wu, Life Professor. A lot of people were still talking, but that didn't stop her from beginning her lesson.

I felt really bad for Wu, because she was trying to teach while the inconsiderate students, the majority of the class, were still chatting. But she always seemed like she was laughing on the inside, or thinking something like: _they're missing out big time_. Since I was in the front row, I could hear her.

First, she requested that we take notes on a piece of parchment. Only everyone in the first row did so, and got their quills ready. As soon as I finished dipping my quill in my inkwell, she started talking on and on about the history of life magic. I didn't catch most of it, but she started to slow down when she started to talk about our first spell, using an imp.

An imp, if you don't know, is a fun loving and mischievous little spirit with huge cat ears. Wu said that we would be using the green variety (it's is the most cooperative). When we cast the spell, we summon them from this place called Grizzleheim and they play a short tune that hurts the enemy somehow. She said she would go more in depth about it when we train. After that, she went on and on about unicorns and how they are not what they seem, and the many different uses for their horns-which do grow back.

When my arm band buzzed, I got up and walked out of the school, only to be swept away in a _clockwise_ current around Bartelby.

When I returned to the ice school, Greyrose had us step into the supply closet and through a door within. The door took us to a huge ice floe in the middle of an icy sea.

After the last student entered, Greyrose stepped in.

She inhaled deeply through her nose and said, "Ah, isn't it lovely?"

The strange thing was I wasn't cold. I felt like I was standing next to Boris' fire again. I had no time to think, however, because Greyrose was already announcing that we had to pare up with someone and practice a new spell called ice beetle. Alexis Mist and I were partners and we stood across from each other. Greyrose told us how to cast the spell and then said, "Give it a whirl!"

Alexis casted first. She waved her wand correctly, but only bits of ice dropped out of it. She looked disappointed.

I got in position and waved my wand. I felt a surge of energy rush through my entire being and out into my hand- no- my wand. My wand had become an extension of me, attaching to my hand and harnessing energy. Then, sparks flew out of it. Fizzle. All of the energy just felt like it dropped out of my being. Strangely enough, I felt more powerful. Greyrose explained something about this in class, that when you fizzle or rest, you gain power to cast even greater spells. She tried to help us understand by referring to this power as a "pip".

So, Alexis got into position again and waved her wand. A blue mist shot from her wand to the ground and a beetle the size of a large dog sprung from the ice and charged at me with hooves like a horse. The beetle was entirely ice, so when it head-butted me, it hurt.

I got back up and sprang into action, casting an ice beetle at Alexis. The same thing happened, except my beetle blew freezing ice at Alexis which tossed her backwards a few feet. She was back up quickly.

She cast the spell again, and her beetle also blew ice at me.

Then I casted the spell and something very strange happened. The blue cloud formed the ice beetle just fine, and then it charged like normal, but then, the beetle grew two snake heads and started relentlessly attacking Alexis. She shrieked and thrashed about, the beetle creature ripping her apart. Greyrose rushed over with a panicked look on her face to Alexis and cast a spell. A blue, glowing whip extended from Greyrose's wand and made contact with the beetle, which melted at that moment.

She then turned to me, the panicked look still plastered on her face.

"Mr. Lotusweave! To the headmaster at once!" she screamed at me, pointing toward the still-open door.


	3. Chapter 3: The Spiral

"**It is hard to _not_ be proud of such a fine school, where discipline is handled so precisely…"**

**-Merle Ambrose, Speech at the 76th Spiral Education Meeting**

Being sent to the headmaster's office for nearly killing someone in a training session on the first day of classes isn't fun. You get mean looks and scared looks.

Tunnels connect the different parts of Wizard City, so I had to walk through the narrow and quite crowded tunnel connecting Ravenwood to The Commons.

The Commons was-as always- very crowded, and Ambrose's office-as always- was bustling with students.

Ambrose stood in front of his desk while students were all about the cramped office, talking to the headmaster, and sitting on the floor practicing magic or reading books.

I made my way over to Ambrose and he pointed toward a large wooden door painted red. Then he returned to talking to other students.

I walked over to the door and turned the large brass knob and gently pushed. Inside was a darkened room with cushiony yellow chairs in which three other students were sitting. The door shut quietly behind me and I sat down in one of the chairs.

It was very obvious that this was the waiting room for students who had disciplinary problems and were sent to the headmaster. One of the students was a boy who looked much older than me. His eyes were covered by dark hair and he held a plain black wand. The next student was a girl with long, flowing blond hair. She was wearing bright yellow robe and had a long yellow staff sitting at her feet. She wore an angry face and her arms were crossed, as were her legs. The next student looked my age, but much shorter. He had an evil grin on his face and he held a purple spike.

The girl in yellow sighed.

"So, why are you all here?" she asked.

The boy with the purple spike was first to speak up, "I was in the branches of Mortis, the death tree! I was peeling off his bark for a potion I wanted to make," his evil grin so wide, it nearly touched his ears.

The other boy in black said, "I was wandering around the Haunted Cave and I was near Lord Nightshade's Tower. Then a Wizard City guard apprehended me and told me to 'report here at once'," he said, mocking the guard's words.

"I almost killed a student with an ice beetle," I said.

"What?" the girl seemed surprised, "you can't kill anyone with an _ice beetle_! They're way too weak!"

"Well I almost did…"

"Why are _you_ here, anyway?" the boy in black asked the girl.

"_I_ was correcting Professor Dalia Falmea about the history of fire magic and she sent me here for 'causing a disruption'."

Then a door that I hadn't noticed on the other side of the room swung open, interrupting the conversation. The life professor, Moolinda Wu burst in wearing an expression I'd never imagined she would have on her face, pure anger. She sat down in the chair next to me.

"Hello, Professor Wu," the boy in black said.

Wu's expression eased as she said, "Hello, Thomas. I wouldn't expect to see _you_ here!"

"Professor, I have no idea why I am here. I was near Lord Nightshade's tower and-"

"You what?"

"Professor, I was instructed to get straw from the field guards and-"

I was intrigued to hear him finish his sentence and to see what Wu thought of it. However, the door burst open and Merle Ambrose stood in the doorway, his monocle glinting, and his knuckles white from clutching his staff. His blue wizard's hat was slanted to one side and he looked very angry.

"Professor Wu," he began, "why are you here?"

Wu stood up, "I have a complaint, Headmaster, about Professor Falmea."

"Please return to the Life School, Professor Wu."

Wu looked shocked. She stared in disgust at the old wizard, enraged. She stormed out of the room from the door that she came through.

Ambrose smiled at the rest of us, "Children, I'm sure you all are not to blame for why you have come, but procedures tell us that we have to go through the standard disciplinary actions. Now, Thomas, why don't you come in first?"

Thomas, the boy in black, rose and followed Ambrose through the large door into his office, which was surprisingly empty. Ambrose closed the door behind him.

It felt like a half an hour passed when the door finally reopened and Ambrose's bright face shone again.

"Ms. Twister?" he invited, cheerily.

The girl in yellow followed the beaming old man into his office just as the doors swung closed again.

It was a long time before his face shown again. I figured that the girl, Ms. Twister, had given Ambrose a hard time because when he appeared again he looked a little off.

"Mr. Lotusweave, please come in," he said.

I stood up as Ambrose turned his back on me and proceeded into his office. The boy with the spike was chuckling and made a slashing motion across his throat. I rolled my eyes and followed through the red doors.

The office had changed, no doubt by magic, from the crowded study room to an actual office. There was a huge desk at the front, which was raised on a platform, and a smaller desk below. He invited me to sit at the smaller desk, which faced the larger one. He climbed stairs to the right of the platform and sat at the large desk.

"So," he began, taking a paper out of a bin marked 'in' on the corner of his desk. Later I discovered that these papers appear magically when a student is sent to his office. Ingenious, really.

He examined the paper, "Lotusweave… I remember your mother and your father when they came to school here," he smiled a great smile, "two people with very powerful magic talents."

"Yes sir," I said.

"In fact, if I recall, they were sent to my office on their first day as well. Your father couldn't control a bolt of lightning, and your mother couldn't control an imp!"

"They have told me that, sir."

"Yes… and now you cannot control an ice beetle."

"Yes sir…"

"A very rare case, young wizard, a rare case indeed. Young wizard, have you ever heard of Mallistaire Drake?"

"Yes sir."

"And you know that he was the previous professor of the death school? Until he became…well…dark?"

"Yes sir," I was lying through my teeth. Sure, I had heard rumors about how the death school disappeared, and I might have heard the name Mallistaire somewhere before. But nonetheless, I went along with it.

"Well, young wizard, I think you have a very bright future ahead of you. There are some very gifted students here at Ravenwood. Mallistaire and his armies grow ever closer to breaching the walls of Wizard City, but we hold strong. The secret military moves against them every day. But alas, we suffer heavy losses."

"Sir, what, may I ask, are you suggesting?"

Merle Ambrose paused a moment, as if thinking about how to put it delicately. "Young Wizard, I need you in my student mission force. It is the only way to counter Mallistaire. Oh please, young wizard, please."

"But sir, I know so little!"

The old man's expression eased, "Oh, Lucas, I was never suggesting that you join now! No, no. I forbid that. I was just wondering if after you are finished training to level-say… level twenty wizard approved by your home school teacher, then I think we could use you."

"Now I understand, sir."

"So? What do you think?"

I thought for a moment. I would love to be able to go somewhere with the magic I learn. I decided.

"Yes sir, I will do it."

"Excellent!" his face simply lit up with excitement, "Purely excellent! Now, Lucas, I shall be in touch with you and with Professor Greyrose. Now run along!"

It seemed rather sudden that he was dismissing me out of his office, but I left swiftly and without question. I was out the main door when he returned to the other door and invited the last boy in.

I looked out into the late afternoon that hung over The Commons. I breathed in the fresh air and began walking the long path from Ambrose's office to the main road of The Commons.

I accidentally bumped into a tall boy with curly brown hair and a hard look on his face.

"Sorry," I muttered.

He gave me a cold look and shouldered me away. I instantly knew why. He was a fire school student and I was an ice school student.

It was common that students in opposite schools despised each other. There was a constant rivalry and a shared dislike. The opposites were: ice and fire, storm and myth, and life and death.

I was aggravated by this and moved away with haste toward the Ravenwood tunnel.

My arm band shook as soon as I exited the tunnel from The Commons to Ravenwood signaling that it was time for my Spiral Studies class.

Lining the inner circle around Bartelby, were small doors that lead to even more classrooms I hadn't noticed before. My Spiral Studies class was in a door across from the myth school that had the myth emblem on it, a golden eye within a golden triangle, surrounded by blue.

The door looked very thick, so I leaned on it with all my might. To my surprise, the door was made of a light maple and I fell clumsily into the room.

The room was a tall tower in which the ceiling was not visible. A tall, bald man in yellow robes stood at the front of the room, Cyrus Drake, the Myth professor. At my entrance, he shifted his weight onto one leg and the expression on his face turned to one of impatience.

He stood, tapping his one hand with his wand in the other, staring at me as I stumbled further into the room.

I noticed that in the middle of the room, there were several chairs in a circle, and all of the students were present to fill them, except one.

"You are late," the old professor muttered.

"I am sorry, sir, I was at Headmaster Ambrose's office, sir," I replied anxiously.

"Yes, yes. Take a seat."

I took a seat hesitantly in a chair between two boys much taller and older than me who definitely looked like they did not want to be there.

Professor Drake pointed his sharp, straight wand into the center of the room and a yellow beam shot out. A brilliant realistic image of the Spiral appeared in the center of the room. Several "oohs" and "aahs" echoed off the walls of the tower in fascination. The two boys on either side of me were obviously not impressed.

The professor chortled at the students' delight at his simple magic spell. He entered the image, which parted for him until he appeared to be standing at the center of the Spiral.

"The Spiral, as you all know, is filled with a vast number of stars and planets. We are located here," the professor said, pointing to a rather large star near the center of the Spiral.

"However," he continued, "due to the new curriculum written up by the Ravenwood Council for Spiral Studies, I am required to teach you more current events in the Spiral and less history. Does anyone know the pressing issue in the Spiral right now?"

No one raised their hand and the two boys on either side of me groaned.

"This is a time of great conflict. Mallistaire the Necromancer has declared war on the Unified Spiral Federation, which is having problems of its own. The source of magic is being intensely debated, and because of this, several members of the Federation are leaving. It is a dark time for all of us."

A girl raised her hand high into the air.

"Yes, Natasha?" Professor Drake called on her.

"I was wondering… what do you mean by the debate of the source of magic?" the girl asked.

"Well, it is obvious that the source of magic is Bartelby and the seven child trees. However, others disagree. For instance, Wysterians believe that the source of magic is a _fountain_," Professor Drake chuckled, "but this is a strange instance, because Wysteria has not threatened to secede from the Federation."

The boys beside me yawned. I must admit, this class was boring. I honestly did not care about the whole 'declaring war' thing. I just knew that Mallistaire was bad and the Federation was good.

After a long Spiral Studies class, all of our arm bands shook and we all left. It was not common that everyone would leave when my arm band shook, because we all had different schedules. Mr. Lincoln would have to enchant each one to fit the schedule of each student, I felt sorry for him.

We all exited the small room and followed the counter clockwise flow of students to the tunnel that led to The Commons.

It was evening, and the low sun emitted a spectacular orange glow that coated Wizard City.

I returned to my dorm and tried my hand at crafting up some dinner. I used some cat tails and a small sapphire in a crafting basin. I tapped it with my wand and said crafting magic words. All of a sudden, I had a nice piece of meat with a small salad in the basin. I put it onto a plate nearby and sat down at a table to eat it.

We were taught a bit of crafting magic by Simeon in order to make food for ourselves. He also told us where we could get reagents, or ingredients. With this, we could make three good meals a day and snacks as long as we had the reagents. Simeon had given us some reagents to start out with.

I fed Luke and cleaned his droppings up from the sand box and went into the corner where my bed was. I changed into pajamas and slipped under the covers, ignoring the book that lay on my bedside table. I had no interest in reading it that night because I did not think that it was coincidence that I had the strange dream the night I read the book.

I shut my eyes. It wasn't a dream that came, because I was not asleep yet. It was a vision rather, of me lifting up the pillow and seeing a note. It continued to play over and over again until I opened my eyelids and picked up the pillow. Surely enough there was a note, which was neatly folded, sitting on the bed where my pillow had been. On the outside fold, there was writing:

_Lucas Lotusweave, Ravenwood School_

I picked up the note and read it.

_Lucas, I am guessing that you are confused about many things._

_Come to Blackhope Tower on Unicorn Way, and I shall answer your questions about everything, including the storm professor's writing and if it is true or not._

_See you soon, hopefully_

I closed the note and set it on my bedside table, disregarding it, and went back to sleep.


	4. Chapter 4: A New Trio

**"A Ravenwood student will learn the combat aspect of magic, so that they may defend themselves in case of inevitable Malistarian invasion…"**

**-Merle Ambrose, Wizard City Presentation, 4th United Spiral Federation Emergency Spiral Summit, Pigswick Academy, Wysteria**

The letter on the small table next to my bed kept talking to me, I swear. All throughout making breakfast, I heard a voice whispering to me, making me uneasy.

_Blackhope Tower…Blackhope Tower_

I knew that I wanted to go there, but I don't think that I should just follow instructions from mysterious notes.

I decided to report the note to Simeon because if anyone was in the dorms that shouldn't be, leaving mysterious notes around, Simeon should know..

I've heard how pleasant Unicorn Way is, however, and I was planning to go there during lunch recess anyway. It would be my first lunch recess, seeing as though I went to the headmaster's office the day before, therefore missing it. I didn't realize how long I had waited in the waiting room. Later, I found out a time spell was set on the waiting room to make time seem to go faster.

I picked up my wand and tapped the underside of my arm band three times. It instantly emitted a soft glow, revealing a hologram of my schedule in Lincoln's writing.

_Lotusweave, Lucas Charles_

_Today:_

_Ice Training Session (Ice School)-Professor Lydia Greyrose_

_Dueling (Unicorn Way Arena)-Mr. Diego_

_Wizard City Freshman Orientation (The Commons)-Simeon Starshine_

_Lunch Recess_

_Life Training Session (Life School)-Professor Moolinda Wu_

_Spiral Studies (Myth Tree Room)-Professor Cyrus Drake_

_Freshmen: Please do not enter Cyclops Lane, Firecat Alley, Triton Avenue, or Colossus Boulevard unless permitted to by a Ravenwood Official, or you are approved as a level ten wizard by your home school teacher. Wizard City guards will NOT allow you through._

Today looked like a busy day for me, and I wasn't very thrilled to have to encounter Professor Greyrose and Alexis Mist again after nearly killing her at yesterday's training session.

I fed Luke and gathered my things. I grabbed the note and made my way down to Simeon's office. The door was closed, so I opened it and walked in.

His office had been transformed into a huge rocky basin with a dark sky and ash all around. Volcanoes around the basin were spewing black smoke and would occasionally burst with lava. Simeon was in the middle of the basin in bright scarlet robes and holding a wand which was basically a stick made of ruby, casting intense fire spells at trolls.

He noticed me and waved his wand around his head and the office shrunk down to its normal size again.

"I can't wait to be able to do that," I said, grinning, still warm from the scorching landscape.

"That's where myth magic is excellent. You can make anything you want as long as you can imagine it and speak clearly," he said, brushing soot off of his robes.

"So," he continued, "what can I help you with, Lucas?"

"Well," I began, "there was a-" I paused and thought. I wanted to know the truth, and I wanted to know everything. If whoever was in Blackhope Tower could tell me that, I didn't want anyone else to know about it.

"A…?" Simeon snapped me back into reality. I had to improvise.

"A curiosity of mine…" it was a terrible recovery, "…about Blackhope Tower in Unicorn Way. I've heard rumors about it, and I wanted to know the real scoop from someone trustworthy, like you…"

Simeon perked up, "oh, well you've come to the right guy, Lucas," he began, almost triumphantly, "I've been in Blackhope Tower, and I've seen Lady Blackhope."

"Lady…Blackhope…?" I replied.

"Yes, Lucas, why else would it be called _Blackhope_ Tower?"

"Oh…haha."

"Anyway…I thought that Lady Blackhope was just a rumor started by teachers to keep kids away from it. You see, back when Ambrose first established Wizard City, he sold some land in it to influential and wealthy people in the Spiral to get more money. So, he sold a block on Unicorn Way to a woman named Lady Blackhope. Nobody knows her real name. Well anyway, she was very old and died in the tower, and eventually, her family gave the estate back to Wizard City. So, I went there, very early on in my wizard career, and took a look around. I got to a room high up in the tower when I saw a transparent woman. But, I could only see her when I wasn't staring directly at her. It was weird. I got so tired…next thing I knew, I was waking up the next morning in my bed."

"Weird…"

"I never went back. Somehow, I got back to my dorm room…and, I forgot the entire journey back. It's a bad feeling, not remembering such a big chunk of time."

With that, I thanked Simeon for recollecting his story and I left to go to my first class.

The usual rush of students around Bartelby had not started yet, so I could walk at my own, leisurely place, stalling as long as I could.

I trudged into the ice school and sat down in the same desk that I had the previous day. To my right, was, once again, Alexis Mist. I was thinking that I should say something to her. It's rather impolite to just pretend something never happened, especially if it was almost killing someone.

"Hey," I said.

"Hi, Lucas," she responded. She didn't look at me.

"Look," I started, "I really don't want to…what I'm trying to say is…what happened yesterday-"

She cut me off and looked me in the eye, "was yesterday and today is today. I know it was an accident, and a pretty awesome accident, by the way," she smiled at me and winked.

I didn't think that someone who I nearly killed would be so okay with me the next day. Whatever, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth.

She continued, "I'd really like to be friends, Lucas," and a big smile spread across her lips.

"I'd like that," I said, "I'd like it a lot."

The funny thing was, neither of us had any other friends, so we were kind of each other's best and only friends.

My schedule lied, or maybe Ms. Greyrose just didn't want to risk someone killing someone else ever again, but we had no training session. There was a complicated diagram on the chalkboard that showed an ice cube with numerous arrows pointing to different parts of the cube and lengthy explanations following behind the arrows.

Greyrose emerged from the back room and was as cheery as ever. She pointed to the diagram on the board and told us to copy it down. I did, of course. After that, she took to further explaining the already lengthy explanations. After a lifetime, my arm band finally buzzed and I was shaken out of my trance of boredom. I got up and headed to the door.

I had heard stuff about Mr. Diego, a walking and talking unicorn who was an expert at the physical side of magic, dueling. Nothing was as great as this class to all of the physically inclined students who said that he was awesome. On the other hand, nothing was worse than this class to the weaker ones and Mr. Diego was nothing but a curse.

I, myself was and am not strong physically. I could ace any mental test any professor could throw at me. But physically, I was a weakling.

Therefore, I was a part of those who didn't care for dueling class. Fortunately for me, I wasn't one of the kids who, just because they were weak, they hated the teacher. My pure loathing of this class was not because of the teacher. In fact, I rather liked Mr. Diego. Unlike the rest of the students, he wasn't a curse to me. He was more like a pal to help me along with something that I didn't like.

So I was standing there in Unicorn Way right near the entrance next to a towering castle with Mr. Diego's face above the portcullis. He walked out, rather awkwardly as the portcullis raised. With each step, a _clip _or a _clop _echoed about the surrounding towers, his legs moving in a strange fashion as if a horse was trotting with only two legs.

He eyed all of us. Only two or three of the twenty standing before him were the stronger kids, probably a typical amount for a group of freshmen.

"Hello, students," Mr. Diego began with a slight Spanish accent, "right now, you will be learning how to, well, duel. Now, each of you grab a partner and get your wands ready, any questions before we start, though?"

A boy in a persimmon robe shot his hand into the air, "how is this any different from a training class?"

"Because," Mr. Diego began, "training is a way to learn the magic, dueling is a way to fight with the magic you've learned!"

"Fight?" the boy said, rather shakily.

"Fight," Mr. Diego confirmed, "there's the side of magic for charms and curses, but there's also the combat side of it. Ravenwood curriculum, fortunately, has you learn both, now let's get going, yes?"

After that brief exchange, pairs started forming. Apparently, most of the other students knew each other. So I stood back while the pairs formed.

Eventually, nobody was left except for a boy in a light green robe. His face seemed scared and his eyes wide. The pupils in his deep eyes seemed to jump out while the light green irises around them seemed to open a door right to the boy's soul. They were nearly transparent. The whites of his eyes seemed to pop out just as much as the pupil. His wand was an ornate yew stick wrapped with vines.

"Hi," I said to him. He nodded back.

"Get ready then," Mr. Diego announced to all of the pairs.

He lifted his wand from his side and I did the same.

"Ready….and….GO!" Mr. Diego waved a sabre about in the air as all of the partners made first moves.

My partner and I eyed each other though, trying to calculate what the other was thinking. He eventually took a step back and pushed his arm forward, sending the vines crawling off of the wand and up my legs. They entwined my ankles together, but I retaliated by freezing his ankles.

As he struggled with my ice, I slashed at the vines, which eventually gave. When I looked up, he had thawed out most of the ice and was shooting a green bolt at me. The bolt hit me and travelled throughout my body. My body became stimulated, then weak, and I felt lathargic. I responded with an ice beetle while I tried to wake myself up. I glanced back just in time to see a small green imp charging to head butt. I caught it with the tip of my wand just in time to freeze it.

I knew that I couldn't win this duel without getting on the offense. I jumped from the pile of dying vines and pointed my wand toward him. My wand shot a spray of ice to the ground, raising up a mouth of a cave made of ice. Just then, a huge light blue snake shot out and screamed at my opponent, causing him to stagger back. I was just as shocked as he that I had conjured that up.

He rolled to one side as the snake retreated. My opponent pointed his wand at me and casted something, however, it was a fizzle. Green sparks rolled off of the tips of the vines and landed on the ground. But I was mistaken. There was a cracking sound as the green sparks took root and a tree rose from the ground. It turned and revealed a face belonging to an old, kind man. Suddenly, the face turned angry and before I knew it, I was dodging rocks, but not before I could shoot a blue shot at my adversary, putting him into a twenty second ice cube.

I ran around the tree as it slowly turned to face me. I shoved my wand into a root of the tree and the whole thing froze and cracked. Just in time for my opponent to send another green bolt, which I countered with a blast from my wand.

As we both prepared for another shot, Mr. Diego called out.

"I think that's enough!"

We both looked around. Mr. Diego and all of the other students were staring in awe at us, posed to duel each other more. Even the couple of students who were physically able were gaping at us.

We exchanged nervous looks just as Mr. Diego began clapping.

"My, my!" he began in his accent, "most freshmen just shoot blasts at each other and finish their duel in a matter of seconds, but these two young men have proven their skill! This deserves some recognition!"

The class began to clap. I felt it only right, so I walked up and shook my dueling partner's hand.

"Lucas Lotusweave, by the way," I said to him.

"Colin Duskrider," he smiled.

From that point on, I became excellent friends with him. He, Alexis and I became a trio of best friends, and spent a lot of time together. However, I felt a special connection with Colin in particular. We both proved we were beyond our normal skills in dueling class even though we had no idea what we were doing. Something about the two of us was different, but I still wasn't sure.

From behind us, Simeon was coming onto Unicorn Way with other freshmen.

"Ah, Simeon," Mr. Diego said.

"Mr. Diego, how are you? I am just taking the freshmen on their orientation," he responded.

Turns out that Simeon had two class periods to give us an orientation for. The rest of the orientation would come tomorrow, but today, he was just going to let us roam Unicorn Way. I was okay with that, because I could use some free time. As Simeon found a bench in Unicorn Park, I decided to look for Blackhope Tower.

As I started off down the street away from all of the chatting students, Colin and Alexis caught up to me. They told me that they knew each other from a myth class they had together. We talked for a little, and then I said I had to go.

"Off so soon, Lucas?" Alexis inquired.

"Yeah, I wanted to go farther down the road. I hear that there's a seraph who's really friendly," I lied

"You're a terrible liar, by the way," Alexis snickered.

"Fine. I'll tell you, but you have to keep it a secret. _Please_," I begged.

They both nodded their heads. I told them everything about Argleston, the book, the conspiracy, my dream, and the note. As I proceeded, Colin's face got more frightened-looking on his face, whereas Alexis' face got more inquisitive and looked like she was delving deeper and deeper in thought.

When I finally finished, Colin was the first to speak.

"Wow, Lucas. Do you think Ambrose is really trying to take power from the trees?" he asked, with desperation in his voice.

"I don't know. He doesn't seem like someone who would try to do something like that. I didn't take what I read from the book to heart at all, actually. I still doubt it…but what if it's true? I just can't say," I responded.

"Maybe the book is right, and this is all just a big plot," Alexis spoke.

We both turned to her.

"Do you think that could be?" Colin asked.

"There's only one way to find out. Blackhope Tower."


	5. Chapter 5: The Estate

_A Note from Sam: Sorry for the hold-up guys! I've been really busy, and I hope you're still into the story 2 and a half months later! Thanks for all of your reviews, too!_

"**Headmaster Ambrose, is it true that a wraith lives on Unicorn Way? A…Lady Blackhope?"**

"**Lady Blackhope? Nobody should ever take foolish rumors started by students seriously."**

**-Duncan Snowshield and Merle Ambrose, 'Spiral Herald' Interview with Merle Ambrose.**

Unicorn Way was a long, wide street that turned a few times before ending at a hedge maze where the fairies dwelled. There were dozens of towers and thousands of houses tucked tightly behind small stone fences next to the sidewalks of the street. The streets were packed with people bustling from a house to a tower and back again, out into the road, towards the commons, and back again.

After maneuvering through the crowded, criss-crossing streets, we got to an intersection of three roads where giant clumps of people moved this way and that. The people in the roads were on brooms and animals gliding at quicker speeds than the others on foot. A few students passed by too.

Suddenly, there was a great commotion. People began to surge in the opposite direction that we were walking. Screams of terror erupted from the crowds.

"It's the Fairy Queen!" somebody shouted.

A fairy wearing all purple and a pointed crown on her head buzzed into the intersection followed by three dark fairies, who had red wings instead and no crown.

In a high, obnoxious voice, the fairy queen spoke out, "You'll all perish under the might of Malistaire!" she raised her arms and three leprechauns skated down rainbows from above her and started chucking gold balls at the crowds. When the gold made contact, some would send them backwards, and others were like little firecrackers that made little explosions.

People were screaming and taking out their wands. With jabs here and there, beams of the different elements were being shot at the fairy queen and her posse. At nearly every one, the fairy queen or one of the dark fairies would catch it with their hands and dash it to the ground nonchalantly.

The three of us ducked behind one of the short stone fences.

"Shouldn't we do something?" Alexis asked.

"What _can _we do? We're just freshmen!" Colin said.

I looked at him.

"We can do what we did in dueleing," I said.

He looked at me and grinned. We nodded.

"Stay here, Alexis," he said sternly.

We hopped over the fence and landed, shooting an ice beam and a life beam at the fairies. Two more had joined them since we hid for cover. Colin's life beam hit one of the dark fairies who screeched and fell to the ground. She stood back up, shook and extended her hand in our direction.

Drool dripped onto Colin's shoulder. We both slowly looked up to see a blood bat foaming green at the mouth. It buzzed around us, getting us all shaken up and it flew away.

Other wizards had circled around the fairies, who were still deflecting all of the blasts with ease.

"This won't work," Colin mumbled.

"Just standing around them firing?" I asked

"Exactly. I got a lucky shot. But other than that, how else can we win?" he said.

As if in answer to his question, a light, playful woman's voice sounded from the far side of the intersection.

"Stop it. Right now," the voice called out. Beyond the intersection, a white-winged and white-robed woman with gleaming blond hair hovered above the ground.

The annoying voice of the fairy queen penetrated the air again.

"Lady Oriel. It's _our pleasure_,"

The fairy queen mocked her by curtseying awkwardly and twirled up into the air and after 4 twirls stopped and extended both of her hands outwards as if pushing the air towards Lady Oriel. A dark purple and black beam of smoke flew out towards her.

The seraph seemed unimpressed as she raised a silver sword glowing with green light and deflected the ray of smoke.

"Stay away from this place, 'queen,'" Lady Oriel screamed as she rushed forwards and sliced the fairy queen in two with a quick slash of her sword. The body of the fairy disappeared and all that were left were her purple wings which the seraph proceeded to pick up and stow away in a pocket. The other dark fairies flew away.

"I apologize to all of you. Hopefully, this won't happen again," Lady Oriel said calmly. Then she turned and glided back down Unicorn Way.

Colin and I returned to the fence and met back up with Alexis as the others on the street began to slowly move around again.

"Even on Unicorn Way we aren't safe," Alexis said.

"I know, it seems bad," Colin bit his lip.

"Lucas?" Alexis asked.

I realized I was preoccupied with the fact that nobody was going past the third or fourth house down the left road at the intersection.

"Sorry…it's just…what's down that road?" I pointed.

We moved to the street corner. At the end of the road, a crooked tower loomed above abandoned houses.

"That's gotta be it," Colin said.

Sure enough, Colin was right. An old sign in front of it told us that, sure enough, this was Blackhope Estate, otherwise known as Blackhope Tower. Architecturally, it was just like the other houses on Unicorn Way. However, this was a very tall tower. Also, due to increased wear and tear, it looked older than the rest of the buildings.

"So what now? We just go on in?" I asked.

"Well there wouldn't be any point in knocking…" Alexis added.

We approached the door and paused. After exchanging glances, Alexis stepped forwards and pushed open the door.

Inside, was a huge great foyer with an old glass chandelier covered in wax from the stubs of unlit candles hanging over it. A staircase to the right spiraled up to the ceiling. Doors lined the walls of the foyer. The walls themselves had pictures of an old woman with black hair and big eyes. In every picture she was sitting the same way, with the same, vacant expression on her face. She was just wearing different outfits.

Spiders had taken up residence all around, just adding to the haunted house theme.

"I expect a lost soul to pop out at any moment, haha," Colin laughed.

"Shut up," Alexis commented.

So, we decided to go around the room and inspect for anything suspicious. I went to the right towards the staircase, Alexis went straight ahead towards a couple of large doors, and Colin went to the left.

I was puzzled with the fact that the staircase went up the ceiling and stopped when it got there. I walked slowly up it, taking each step more cautiously than the previous one, going around four spirals before crouching down.

"This doesn't make any sesnse!" I yelled down as I hit the stone ceiling with my hand, "the staircase just stops."

"All these doors won't budge," Alexis added.

"Nothing here," Colin said.

I ran back down the steps and we all congregated under the chandelier again.

"What now?" I asked, but Colin became preoccupied with something.

"Colin?" Alexis poked him.

"Sorry," he began, still inquisitively staring into space, "this picture…" he began slowly stepping towards a picture on the wall.

"Yeah?" I inquired.

"She's different. She's facing to her left instead of to her right," Colin murmured.

"Colin, what…" Alexis started, but we looked around. In all of the pictures except this one, the woman was facing to her right. In the one that Colin saw, she was facing to her left. He reached out to touch it.

"Colin! Don't!" Alexis squeaked, running in front of the portrait, extending her arms to block him, "you don't know what could happen!"

"So you just want to leave? We're at a dead end, and we don't have anything else to work with," Colin reasoned.

After much coaxing, Alexis reluctantly stepped out of the way. Colin reached out and pulled the picture right off.

A distant _ding_ sounded.

"What was that?" Alexis asked.

"Look! Up there!" Colin pointed.

Sure enough, one of the candles had lit itself on the great chandelier. However, our happiness and excitement died off quickly.

"So? One candle? What does that do for us?" I said.

The three of us paced the room, occasionally glancing up at the chandelier where the one candle was lit. I was retracing my steps silently in my head. It was obvious that the movement of the picture frame was the cause of the candle lighting itself. But why? What was the point of the candle? I thought about it. We came in…I went up the stairs. The stairs!

I quickly ran over to the long spiral staircase that extended from the ceiling to the floor, but it went nowhere. Not yet, anyway.

"I think we need to light all of the candles…" I mumbled. I turned my head to the other two who were bearing inquisitive looks on their faces.

"What…?" Alexis questioned.

"Just give it a shot. Please? What else have we got?" I said.

"True…" Alexis agreed.

Then once more, we were stuck.

"We have no fire," Colin reminded us. None of us were pyromancers. If you were born a pyromancer, it was easy to whip up fire from nowhere. If you were born something else, it was much harder. For instance, all of the students who choose fire as their second school find it especially challenging, since the essence of the magic type is not something that's easy to get. Sure, you can light a candle and work a fire cat off of that, but if you don't have a source, it will take some time to master making one. Meanwhile, the other elements are much easier to take on as a second school because of how accessible their essences are. The hardest of the others are storm and ice, but water is even in the air, so it's much easier to obtain then fire.

So we were stuck there again. But I didn't give up. There had to be a short cut to get past the fact that we didn't have fire to work with. We thought of going up and using the lit candle to spread the fires to the other candle, but we couldn't get up there, and even if we did, we would risk the chance of bringing down the chandelier. After thinking a lot, we became so desperate that we started to put the picture up on the wall and take it down again over and over. Nothing.

After hanging the picture up for the last time, I sighed.

"It's no use, that's not going to work," I grumbled.

"So what, we leave and bring back some fire?" Alexis suggested.

"No," Colin said, "Someone sees the candle lit and they'll get suspicious. What if they get past the foyer without us?"

"Colin, what if time runs out and we miss class?" Alexis pointed out.

She was right, we had to get this done soon, and we were encroaching on our lunch recess, which would mean we'd only have forty-five minutes until classes resumed. I sat down against a wall.

"Jeez, it's pretty cold in here," Alexis shivered.

"What I wouldn't give for a fire," Colin joked.

"Or a myth fire," I said quietly to myself. I remembered the fire back in the library…myth fire…myth…Alexis…ALEXIS!

"Alexis Mist!" I blurted out. The two jumped back.

"What!" She squealed.

"You're a myth student, right? That's your first school?" I asked.

"Yeah. Ice is my second. Didn't I tell you?" She asked, still puzzled.

"Never mind that. Have you learned myth fire?" I said excitedly.

I could see her eyes light up and a smile come across her face.

"Yes, yes, yes! I learned it from another student!" She completely understood where I was going.

She leapt up and pointed her dark red wand towards the chandelier. She closed her eyes, and suddenly opened them again, the irises of her eyes flashed a deep gold. A beam of a similar color danced out of her wand and charged at the chandelier.

The sound of stone sliding against stone was heard. Sure enough, all of the candles were lit, and a door above the staircase had been revealed. We high-fived in celebration of our victory.

The door was tall and looked like it was a smaller version of the doors back at the library. The staircase ended right at the door, so we were face to face with it when we finished climbing the spiral staircase.

Colin reached out for the large brass doorknob and gently turned it to the right. A loud clicking sound echoed about the huge foyer. Alexis's face was suddenly flushed of all color and her eyes widened as if she'd seen a ghost.

"Do you hear that?" she asked quietly.

"Hear what?" Colin said, eying her suspiciously.

"The whispers. They just keep going…" she said looking down at the ground nervously.

"Wh…what are they saying?" I said nervously.

"Lucas Lotusweave…Lucas Lotusweave…"


End file.
